I didn't start the book. Too much swearing and F bombs for me.

If I didn't know who'd written this book, I would have guessed it was a long-term powerhouse like Toni Morrison or Alice Walker. Amazing. Jessmyn Ward is a talent to be reckoned with.

”The memory is a living thing—it too is in transit,
But during its moment, all that is remembered
joins, and lives—the old and the young, the past
and the present, the living and the dead.”
One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty

Thirteen year-old JoJo and his younger sister Kayla live with Pop and Mam, his mother’s parents. Big Joseph and is their other grandpa, Michael is their son, and JoJo and Kayla’s father. Leonie, their mother, JoJo and Kayla have lived with her parents for three years, since the day the police took Michael away, before Kayla was even born. Soon, though, Michael will be getting out of Parchman, Mississippi’s State Penitentiary.

Mam is losing her lengthy battle with cancer, these days she’s bedridden, and life is far from easy for this family. The only one seemingly staying in one place is Mam, but even she is transitioning, dreaming of emerging from this confining cocoon of life and becoming free of the pain and suffering.

Pop has his stories that haunt him of his days at Parchman when he was a boy two years older than JoJo is now. He wasn’t the youngest, though, that would be Richie. Richie was twelve. Pop’s dreams tend to take him into the past, sometimes revisiting his days at Parchman, his life since those days.

There’s a journey to drive and pick up Michael upon his release from prison, but the journey is more than a physical one, more than just the drive there and back. There’s Michael’s journey from being an inmate to being free, a mental transition as much, if not more, than a physical one. From prisoner back to husband and father, including a daughter who doesn’t know him. A journey from the past to the present.

There’s a gentle sense of spirituality in this story, weaving in and out of the tale are ghosts of the past hovering, flitting in and out of the story. There are also the ugly tales of dark days, slavery, and the kidnappings that slavery was built upon. Racial tensions. Generational, never-ending poverty. Deprivations. Prejudice. Regret.

And then there’s tales of love. Of hopes and dreams. Of believing in something more than what is. Of opening our heart, mind and eyes to see beyond.

Having never read Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones, for which she won a National Book Award, Where the Line Bleeds or Men We Reaped, my only acquaintance with her was reading the collection of essays in The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race, for which she was editor. I was not prepared for how thoroughly I would be immersed in this story, or how this feels, beautifully crafted with an immense sense of love and caring for each person. This felt like a living place and these people like they lived and breathed, laughed and cried. When I was in the woods behind Pop’s house with JoJo, I could visualize it all, and when I stood beside Mam, I saw it all, felt everything.

Ultimately, this is an ode to that place where we can find that feeling we may search for our whole lives. That place where we feel we belong, where we are accepted, welcomed, where we can be ourselves. What our hearts see as Home, where we can become ”part of the song.”

Recommended.


Pub Date: 05 Sept 2017

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Scribner.

This book is heartrending and beautifully written. The story of a biracial thirteen year old boy, who is being primarily raised by his black, maternal grandparents, and essentially is raising his younger sister. There are multiple tales within tales: a road trip to retrieve his father from prison, crystal meth, pervasive racism in the past and present South, family love--both everlasting and imperfect, mothering and nurturing--both despite of hardships and the inherent lack of it, and ghosts. Jojo, the central figure is coming of age and becoming aware of the facts about his uncle's death and his beloved grandfather's experience in prison. His true mother, his grandmother, is dying. His biological mother has come back into his life. Jojo is endangered on many fronts--uncaring adults, racist society, supernatural. His love for his sister and grandparents and his bravery are unwavering. The writing is lyrical, the story is compelling and the book leaves a lasting impact. There is horror, love, bravery and cowardice. It's an important book and left an indelible impression.

i'm by no means a connoisseur of contemporary african american literature, but, of the authors i've read, jesmyn ward seems to me the best in bringing us close to an understanding of the absolute tragedy that was slavery, and, in james baldwin's words, of the fact that "americans are as unlike any other white people in the world as it is possible to be." the flip side of baldwin's statement is that black americans are a deeply injured people, and we are way too close to the long, long time during which this injury was inflicted to get even a glimpse of its devastating power. even just to say the words "post-racial" is sacrilegious.

for this reason alone, jesmyn ward must be read by all white people. i don't know about black people because i'm not black, but white people must read this book and try to understand as much as they can what it means to carry the worst trauma history can inflict.

this book is about black people and white people. it is set in contemporary mississippi, but there are flashbacks to the 1950s. look, this is not harder to read than, say, The Underground Railroad. in some ways, it's easier. there is a road trip and if you are a sucker for road trip stories, this is a good one. there are ghosts, so if you are a sucker for ghosts this is for you. there are also a lot of unnecessary adjectives, and the prose is less sparse and clean than the prose in Salvage the Bones, which was pretty much perfect. there are dogs. jesmyn ward has a thing for dogs. the dogs in this book, just like the dogs in Salvage the Bones, are not nice, but they don't hurt anyone. still, the book's protagonist, a young teenage boy, is afraid of the dogs. dogs were used and are still used by white people to scare and hurt black people. there is a reason why jesmyn ward's characters are afraid of dogs.

but there is also hope. just like in Salvage the Bones it is not easy hope. it's transcendent hope that is rooted in religion, christian and african, and spirituality, and it is hope that, heartbreakingly, gives strength to endure. just like in Salvage the Bones, there are siblings who really, really love each other, and i am as much a sucker for young siblings who love the heck out of each other as i am of road-trip books, so this worked for me.

i read an advanced copy of this book thanks to netgalley (many thanks), so maybe by the time this reaches you someone will have cleaned up the excessive adjectives and the book will be perfect. regardless, you should read it, because you, like me, need to be reminded, as often as possible, that we are unlike any other people in the world.

I listened to the audiobook of "Salvage the Bones", a couple of months ago. I was so engrossed, it was almost hard to distinguish one talent from the other: the narrators voice or the authors writing. Jesmyn Ward was a new author to me.
I remember cringed at times - and thought the language was beautiful.

NO SPOILERS
.....many other reviews came before me - excellent ones describing the plot and sharing about the characters. I read Michael's review which had me running to find this book on Netgalley. I didn't even know a new release was coming out.
His review is wonderful. I recommend reading his review- its terrific!

I tried to write this review from mostly my thoughts and feelings about it AS A WHOLE...which is why I don't go into each character too much. I'm sure, though that this story and these characters and many of the scenes will stay with me for a long time.

I enjoyed 'reading' Jesmyn's writing very much. ( no audiobook this time). Page after page -- there is wonderful prose. I love how the story begins.......
"I like to think I know what death is. I like to think it's something I could look at straight. When Pop tell me he need my help and I see that black knife slid into the belt of his pants, I leave Mam sleep in her bed and my little sister Kayla sleep on a blanket on the floor, and I follow Pop out the house, try to keep my back straight, my shoulders even as a hanger; that's how Pop walks".

Jesmyn is a magnificent writer, and storyteller. Although an easy storyline to follow itself - I spent extra time thinking about the individual characters. Visually pictures were solid in my brain.
Each one of characters were dealing with transition- change - suffering -and other losses.
Each character in this novel had to confront the curves life threw at them - be it illness - drugs - poverty - racial inequity - massive disappointments - fears - regret - abuse -
narcissistic illusional protection - and other realities every human being would prefer to avoid.

Morning breakfast anyone?
Cold goat for breakfast with gravy and rice .. was cooked in a pot that Pop tells Jojo...is leaking cancer into the food because the enamel on the inside is peeling off like paint. Isn't this the way you start your day? And greet your kids with news of their first morning meal? Yeah.... thought so!

Kidding aside-- about the breakfast...... there's a great deal of sadness in this novel
but WE FACE OUR THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS WITH GRACE..... because Jasmyn Ward is skilled in opening up our hearts and mind -- to take a deeper look at some very serious issues --without leaving us ( the readers) to bleed to death either. Jasmyn has crafted an important path to understanding more about ourselves - the world we live in -and the nature of reality ....a touch of spiritualistic mythology.

Thank You Scribner, Netgalley, and Jesmyn Ward... ( you have me wanting to read your other books)!!!

A moving story, following a link through the ages of a family; its hardships, successes and heart-breaks. Really absorbing and emotional, you really feel for all the characters in their own way. Really recommend.

This is a story you need to digest a while after you read it. It has some elements of magical realism that may or may not be metaphorical, and the story it tells is so complexly layered that it is sometimes hard to decipher. But it is worth the journey.

The story takes place on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, where the bloody ghosts of its Jim Crow racist past are never hidden far below the surface.

Leonie is a young African-American drug-addicted mother with two children, Jojo (age 13) and his sister Kayla (3), whom she mostly leaves in the care of her own parents, Mam and Pop. Mam is dying of cancer, so Pop and Jojo carry most of the load of running the house and raising Kayla. The story is narrated in turn from multiple perspectives.

Parchman State Penitentiary is a character in this story also. Pop was sent there for five years when he was fifteen, and the trauma he experienced there has haunted him ever since. Leonie’s white boyfriend Michael (who is also the father of her two children) is in Parchman as the story begins, but is about to be released.

[In real life, Parchman had been notorious for many years for being run like a slave plantation, with inmates suffering murders, rapes, beatings and other abuses. In 1972, four Parchman inmates brought a suit against the prison superintendent in federal district court alleging their civil rights under the United States Constitution were being violated by the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment. The federal judge found for the plaintiffs, and reforms were subsequently instituted. But reports of abuses and corruption have continued to plague the prison, albeit across the color line now. As Michael wrote to Leonie: “This ain’t no place for no man. Black or White. Don’t make no difference. This is a place for the dead.”]

Leonie insists the kids ride with her to Parchman to pick up their father. She also brings along her white friend Misty, a fellow drug-addict who also has a boyfriend in Parchman. (Misty’s boyfriend is black, and “this loving across color lines was one of the reasons we became friends so quickly.”). Misty is Leonie’s only friend.

When Leonie is high, she sees her dead older brother Given, who was killed fifteen years ago by Michael’s racist cousin. In fact, Michael’s whole family consists of rabid racists, and his parents won’t even acknowledge their half-black grandchildren.

Leonie can only see the dead with drugs, but Jojo and Kayla have the “gift” of hearing voices and seeing the dead at any time. Jojo is a bit worried that when Mam dies he will see her as a ghost. She tells Jojo she thinks not; rather, she will be “on the other side of the door. With everybody else that’s gone before.”

But Jojo has reason to worry; he is troubled by a ghost named Richie, who came back with them from Parchman. Richie was only 12 when he was in prison there, at the same time that Pop (whose name is River) was there. Pop has told Jojo stories about Richie, but never about what happened to him and how he died. Richie asks Jojo to find out, because River can’t hear him like Jojo can, and Richie needs to know; he thinks if he does, he will hear the song that will free him from this half-way existence and let him move on to the afterlife. (Is the song one of love for those who died? Justice? Change in the South? It’s unclear to me.)

And Richie is not alone in his situation. “‘There’s so many,’ Richie says. . . ‘So many of us..’ ‘Stuck. So many crying loose. Lost.’” The stuck ones are those that suffered unjustly and died violently; those that were lynched, tortured, murdered - they are all waiting, in sorrow and pain, to hear the song to send them on.

Whether Jojo can help him find the song drives the narrative, as do the ties of family and love that can see us through the worst of times.

Evaluation: There are characters who act badly, and yet most of them elicit sympathy. Others, like Michael’s extended family, are horrific, but they are not portrayed unrealistically; unfortunately, they still exist.

This story is haunting in two senses. One is its inclusion of ghosts, although this is definitely not a “paranormal” story; they can be seen as narrative devices, and/or as metaphors. The other is that the story and characters and what they endured will stay in your mind long after you finish reading.

This book raises some thorny issues that would make it an excellent choice for book clubs.

4.5 stars, I'll round to 5. The characterization in this book is super strong. The characters all felt like flesh and blood breathing to me. I loved the interplay in narration between JoJo, the young boy who had to grow up too fast, and Leonie, his mother who still hasn't quite grown up. I loved seeing their relationship and how they relate to others in a multigenerational household. The prose is haunting. It is not an easy book to read subject-wise, but Ward makes it hard for you to look away and wraps you tight around members of the family.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Such an incredibly prolific novel! Jesmyn Ward takes us on a journey with this family through racial adversity. Exceptional character development made this brilliant story heartbreaking!

A compelling and gripping novel with well developed and deep characters,masterfully structured plot and amazing insight . I loved it and would recommend it to everyone. The book was awesome and addictive with its powerful prose and captivating snd intriguing storh line.I can't wait to read more from the author.

Jesmyn Ward has a way with her words. An amazing story of a young boy and his family, touching on the individual struggles they each face as well as the struggles they face as a unit. The story is told from the perspective of the different characters, allowing insight into the internal struggles each faces. The beauty I found within the madness of all the problems these characters have is the gift that they possess. Ward did an exceptional job in painting the picture that allows you to see yourself witnessing this story as it happens. A very good read, I couldn't put it down.

So I read Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones for class a few years ago and liked it, but I absolutely loved Sing, Unburied, Sing. It is a beautiful novel exploring how the deep magical realism that exists in the Deep South shapes the lives of entire families. This novel is truly an epic journey packed into a road trip through Mississippi. This is a definite must-read and will probably be among my favorites of 2017.

This novel explores family relationships, addiction, deep grief and guilt, all-consuming love, mercy in death, racial tensions, child neglect, and the slavery to prison conversion that is still very much in effect today.


Jojo, 13, and his little sister Kayla, 3, don’t want to go with their drug-addicted and rarely present black mother to pick their white father up from prison. They’d rather stay with Mam and Pop, their maternal grandparents in the home they’ve made for themselves. Even though Mam is wasting away from cancer and Pop can’t shake the time he did in jail as a boy. Leonie, their mother, takes them anyway, but things aren’t as simple as she’d like them to be.

Diversity: +15
Race/Ethnicity: +1 (author), +5 (Dealt with issues of black/white relationships and their biracial children in Deep South)
Culture: +2 (Mam’s practice with herbs and prayers)
Gender: +2 (Leonie, Misty, Mam, and even Kayla have their own agency)
Physical Disability: +2 (Cancer)
Neurodiversity: +2 (Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, Drug-addiction)
Socioeconomic Status: +1


What I liked:
-The character development. Even though this seems like it would be a plot-driven novel, it is definitely character-driven. Everyone goes on their journey and comes out changed in the end. Ward beautifully gets into the heads of the characters and has written them in such a way that they truly are complete and complicated people. Mostly, it’s about the character development within families. It’s a story about women and men becoming mothers and fathers, and about children discovering their place in the world is not the center of their parent’s.
-If you’ve ever read southern literature, then you know that there’s nearly always an aspect of magical realism. Basically, it is the art of taking something completely ordinary and mundane (such as a road trip to a prison) and weaving in magical and fantastical elements that fit within the world created without creating a different fantasy world. The premise of this novel is deeply rooted in the magic present in the every day life that many of us are not in tune with.
[I’m sure there will be a common misunderstanding of calling Mam’s abilities voodoo. I love that Ward never put a name to anything that happened, because the only terminology that would put this practice in the realm of voodoo is “gris gris.” I could write pages and pages about the biases and stereotypes of wise, black women healers being labeled as voodoo women and am glad that Ward steered clear of those connotations. She let her actions and sense of self speak louder than the automatic stereotypes that would have colored the novel had she called it by a name. ]
-Time. The way time is woven throughout this novel feels like it’s another character. The past and present weave in an out of themselves just as we are always affected by where we come from and where our people come from. Especially in terms of the Mississippi south and its people.
-Race. It’s so rare for a biracial character to have to confront their different selves in a novel as Jojo does. I absolutely appreciate the variations in the reactions about relationship. We get the deep infatuation and obsession from Michael and Leonie when they’re together and their exasperation at being kept apart. The acceptance from Mam and Pop. The hatred from Joseph and Maggie. The desire for love and angry ambivalence from Jojo.

This novel is astounding.

It is the story of Jojo, a 13 year old boy in Mississippi who lives with his young sister Kayla, his granparents Pop and Mam and, more absent than present, his meth-addicted mother Leonie. The book grapples with death, cancer, drug addiction and racism past and present. Wide-ranging important themes, yet the book is also much much more than all this.

There is room in the novel for many voices to speak, both dead and undead. There are layers of understanding and seeing experienced by different characters that cast a mystical shadow over the bleak realities of Sing, Unburied, Sing. It is an unsettling read, both harsh and beautiful, and it is written with truth and clarity. I will seek out more novels by Jesmyn Ward.

This is another one of those books that makes me wish I was allowed to give half stars - definitely a 4.5 star book for me. Incredibly powerful story. This is my first book by Jesmyn Ward, but it will definitely NOT be my last. She paints a stunning picture of life in rural Mississippi for young Jojo and his toddler sister. Although a lot of the book also centers around Jojo's mother, grandfather and grandmother, it's really his story, his world, his existence, that makes this book as amazing as it is. I had my doubts when a fantasy/supernatural twist was thrown into the mix, but it grabbed me and pulled me in as quickly and as wholly as Jojo's story did. The writing is almost lyrical, lulling you into the rural life of the south. What I truly loved about this book was the range of emotions it gave me - I was both disturbed and inspired by the book, saddened and uplifted, all at the same time. Most definitely one I would recommend to anyone who appreciates truly good writing, even if it comes at the price of an emotional story.

I know it's early to call it, but this novel will likely end up as my favorite read of 2017.

Now, where to begin?

I should probably start by mentioning I've loved everything I've read by Jesmyn Ward. Since the first book I read by her, I thought she was smart and talented and capable of writing something devastating in its brilliance. And SING, UNBURIED, SING is just that. It would be unjust if this novel doesn't end up being nominated for--and winning-- several awards.

This novel is primarily narrated by thirteen-year-old Jojo and his drug addict mother, Leonie. Jojo and his younger sister live with their maternal grandparents and don't have contact with their (white, racist) paternal grandparents. Mam and Pop have been a steady stable force in the children's lives as Leonie has struggled with her addiction and her codependent relationship with their father, Michael. Mam is losing her fight with cancer and Michael is being released from jail. Leonie decides to take Jojo and his sister on a journey to pick up Michael.

The trip is a kind of odyssey as they travel through Mississippi. Both Jojo and Leonie are tied to the past as they travel--Leonie traveling with her deceased brother (who incidentally was murdered by Michael's brother) and Jojo with one of Pop's deceased friends. These dead characters are more spirits than ghosts, lending a magical realism element. There is so much symbolism and layers of meaning and depth I feel like I could write a term paper about it (and would need to read it several more times to pick up everything). The book deals with heavy subjects--death, violence, race, family, and incarceration. It is a skillful study on how the past can narrate our present.

"Because we don't walk no straight lines. It's all happening at once. All of it. We all here at once..."

SING, UNBURIED, SING is beautifully written and so lyrical. It's is quite literally, a perfect novel.

This was a very hard read for me. It was incredibly well-written and beautiful realised but it just had such a weight to it - I think I just found it profoundly sad and difficult to want to pick up. I'm glad I read it but I don't know if I would read it again, because it left me feeling so exhausted.

West's book touches you in the most difficult places, brings you up close and personal with what o
it means to be part of a family, how it feels to love and be loved. At the same time, the book touches on themes of addiction, racism, poverty and family dysfunction. Ward's writing is poetic and rich, her characters fully drawn, and this story stays with you long after the last page is turned.

From National Book Award-winner for Salvage The Bones, Jesmyn Ward brings us this look at a place that I am very familiar with. The Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Ms. Ward uses language that pulls you in and makes you see, makes you feel. What an amazing gift she has!

Jojo, who is 13 and his toddler sister, Kayla and Leonie, their drug addicted mother live with Mam and Pop on a farm along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Mam is dying of cancer and Leonie is rarely there. She spends most of her time getting high and talking to her dead brother. She is about as unfit to be a mother as the yard dog.

Their father, Michael is currently a guest of the state, at Parchman. Parchman is not a place anyone would go willingly. For years mothers have used it as a way to keep teenagers in line. Just a drive by and you know it's not a good place. Michael is also white, while Leonie and her parents are black. His family wants nothing to do with Leonie or their grandchildren. But Leonie loves him even though his own family killed her brother and covered up the murder.

When Michael is released from Parchman, Leonie takes the children and her best friend and heads north to pick him up. And on the trip back, it looks like Michael wasn't' the only one to get in the car with them. Richie, a spirit, has hitched a ride. He knows Jojo can lead him to Pops and he needs to know what happened to him in Parchman and how he died.

This portrait of Mississippi past and present is one of the most moving, raw, and beautiful stories I have read. Being from the Gulf Coast and knowing The Kill, their claim to fame being the home of Brett Favre and an odd bar with bras on the ceiling, this book made me cry, it actually was painful to read some parts because the author is so brutally honest about a subject few talk about. At least not in Mississippi.

You can pretty it up on the outside, but at the core, it's still goes on everyday, the racism, the sense that they aren't as good.

This story of loss, and family and prejudice was heartwrenching. The strength of the characters enduring burdens they should never have had to bear. There is no fairness, no equality, no respect for another human being, and yet they all endure. They keep moving.

Pops was my favorite character in this novel. The way he quietly took what ever came his way and made the best of it. Besides Leonie, the rest of the family never complained, whined or bucked the system in place. They just put their heads down and did what needed to be done.




Thank You to Netgalley and Scribner for this beautiful novel.